This is the Chancellor's Program. At his homegoing in November 1997, Dr. Bob Jones, Jr. left a legacy of lifelong ministry to students as Chancellor and former President of Bob Jones University. He also left a wealth of recorded sermons which we now present on the Chancellor's Program. Today we bring you a message titled, Our Obligation to Our Fellow Christian, based on Galatians chapter 6, verse 1 through verse 10. It was delivered during a daily chapel service held on the campus, August 5th, 1963. Galatians chapter 6. Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness, considering yourself, lest you also be tempted. This is the same approach to a problem regarding a brother that the Lord gives in regard to the heritage. The word in regard to the heretic is this, he that is a heretic after the first and second admonition avoid. If a man's not right doctrinally, you have under the scriptural obligation to go to him twice and try to straighten him out. But if after you've gone to him twice and dealt with him from the word of God, his doctrine is still not sound, you would avoid it. You're not to just say, well, this fellow's a heretic and let it go at that. You're to go first and try to straighten him out. The same thing, I think, by implication ought to apply to those who disobey the scripture. Those who disregard the scripture and regard the attitude toward heretic. We've been accused in this institution of being against certain men because they break down the lines between those who believe the word and those who don't. The people who rebuke us on that say, well, why don't you talk it over with them? They don't know how much talking we have done and how much correspondence has gone back and forth. But the scriptural position is in regard to a heretic, always first go to him, try to straighten him out. Help him if you can. But then if he's still a heretic, avoid him. You have to. If you associate with heretics, heresy will be a contagious thing. You say, well, I think I'm grounded in the faith. I think I'll keep the faith. That expression, keep the faith, always is, in a sense, a misapplied expression. It isn't enough to keep the faith. A man needs to grow in grace. A fellow said to me, I think I can go to a modernistic school. I think I'm well grounded. I think I can keep the faith. I said, that's not enough. You don't want to just keep the faith. You want to grow in grace and you want your faith to be deep. When you plant a flower, If you're a good gardener, you try to get the soil right so the flower will come to its fullest blossom. You can plant a rose in ordinary soil, not give it much care, the rose may not die, but it'll never come to full development and be the kind of rose it would be if you planted it in the right kind of soil and gave it the proper care and the proper fertilizer, the proper water, the proper attention. Now that's exactly the way it should be with your Christian life. It isn't enough just to keep the faith. You want to develop the faith till you can be the best possible Christian in the service of God. And this idea of keeping the faith, that's not enough. There must be more than keeping the faith. There must be growth in grace, there must be contention for the faith, and there must be a propagation of the faith. All of those are the obligation of the Christian as outlined in the word of God. You keep the faith, you defend the faith, and you propagate the faith. By doing all these things, you grow in grace. We want to provide the kind of atmosphere here where our students will grow in grace as they go along. But if you find somebody that's overtaken in a fault, the thing you do is to try to restore such a one in the spirit of meekness. That is, realizing that what he did you might do under the proper circumstances. Don't ever think you can't fall. No wonder the scripture has so much to say about, let him that thinks he stand take heed lest he fall. It's the very hour when you think you're fixed that the devil's going to overthrow you. It's the very time in life that you say, well, now everything's settled, that you're going to find everything's unsettled. Life's like that. No surprise to me that the Lord says, in such an hour as you think not, the Son of Man come. Everything in life happens unexpected. And when you think you are standing, you are suddenly going to find yourself overthrown. You ought to be aware always of the devil's devices, not ignorant. If you're ignorant of his devices, he'll slip up on you and the first thing you know, you'll fall. I talked to a girl once, terrible sin in her life, wrecked life, and she said to me, she said, I didn't think this could ever happen to me. I said, that's why it happened to you. You didn't think it could. The Bible says, make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. If you make a provision for the flesh, you will fulfill the lust. If you make any allowance for the flesh, let me tell you, you've got to knock your body down all the time. You can't ever coddle your own fleshly desires. If you do, you're sowing to the flesh, and of the flesh you reap corruption. Now, when anybody is overtaken in a fault, spiritual person tries to restore such a one. Now, this is dealing with the personal, individual attitude of brother for brother. There's a judicial attitude also. A judge has a son. As a father, it's his duty to love that son, to care for him. He'll do all he can for the boy, but if the boy is brought before the court, it's his duty as a judge to sentence him. If he's violated the law and deal with him on the same basis, he would any other violator of the law. Now, this is dealing here with the spiritual approach of brother to brother, what to do with a brother that's overtaken in a fault. We have a spiritual responsibility to you here. We also have a judicial responsibility in Bob Jones University. We could not afford to keep a student here who was guilty of certain things, even though he might be restored. He would still have to suffer the penalty of the law, but we'd do everything we could to restore him spiritually. Now, that's the way the Word of God outlines it. Now, come on from there. There ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. Now, what is the law of Christ? The law of Christ, basically, is the law of love and sacrifice. The law of Christ is Christ is everything, I'm nothing. He gave himself for us as he loved us, so we also should love one another. The sacrifice and the love, and the two always go together. If you don't sacrifice, you don't love. Let me say that again. If you don't sacrifice, you don't love. I've known some fellas, went with a girl, had a deep and passionate involvement for the girl, but they were very selfish. They didn't love that girl. They just had a kind of a lustful desire for the girl. It's not the same thing at all. True love always is marked by sacrifice. God so loved that he gave. And without sacrifice, there is no love. The lover always seeks not what he can get, but what he can give, the true love. You love somebody, you're willing to die for them. You don't expect them to die for you. You see, love suffereth long in this kind. It envieth not, it vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, seeks the will and the best of the other. Now the law of Christ is this, that as he loved us, so we ought to love one another. As he gave, so we ought to give. As he endured the cross and despised the shame, so we ought to be willing to endure whatever cross is necessary to endure and despise that shame for his sake. That's the law of Christ. Now, when you bear one another's burden, you fulfill that law. And unless you bear somebody else's burden, you're not fulfilling the law of Christ. He bore the burden of our sins. Now, it's our obligation as Christians to try to help bear somebody else's burden. Your burden is the thing that you have to carry. If you add to the load of some teacher here by not doing your work well, by being late with your assignments when you don't have to be, by demanding more time than you need, by being argumentative in class and using up extra energy for that teacher, by being inattentive and disrespectful. You are not bearing her burden, you are adding to her burden. Young people, you might as well face this. Everybody you have to come in contact with, either you're going to give them something or you're going to take something from them. Do you ever stop to think about that? If you don't give, you take. Now, the Christian's idea is to try to give. I won't put more burden on that fellow. I'll try to take some of the burden off. And if you don't try to take something off, you'll add something off. Now, we're to bear one another's burdens if we fulfill the law of Christ. You fulfill it in this fashion. Bear ye one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. The law of Christ is never fulfilled in a selfish life. There has to be this unselfish approach. Now, let's go on to the next verse. It's very significant how this next verse follows this. At first glance, the two seem unrelated and irrelevant, but there's a very definite relevancy between these two verses. For if a man think himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. In other words, the man who demands a lot, who lets other people carry the load and expects to be waited on, that man thinks he's something, but spiritually he's nothing, for the very reason that he's not making a spiritual contribution. He deceives himself, he doesn't deceive anybody else. You ever stop to notice in the Word of God how often the Bible speaks about deceiving yourself? Let no man deceive himself. It's so easy to be self-deceived. The man who thinks he's something when he's nothing is not fooling anybody but himself. There's nothing that's easier to spot than a windbag. A balloon is always obviously a balloon by its very likeness. And the only thing that gives the balloon any body is the air inside. You stick a pin in it, you don't even find the rubber. You let the air out, and you have a little bit of a wrinkled, dilapidated-looking little bladder. That's all you have left. There are some people like that. They fool themselves because they're all blown up and they look big, but they're so light that you have to hold them down. A wind would blow them away. But they feel awfully important. Somebody comes along, sticks a pin in them, nothing left. There are people like that. You deceive yourself when you think you're something when you're nothing. In God's sight, it's always the man who's the servant that's the man that's of honor. The way down, our founder says, is the way up. Our Lord is never more kingly than when he girds himself with a towel to wash the feet of the disciple. That's the Lord in the in the purpose of his coming into the world, not to be ministered unto, but to minister. And you are most Christlike when you are girded with the towel of service, when you put on the uniform of service. The fellow that sits around and thinks he's a big shot and expects everybody to wait on him, that fellow's nothing, but he's not fooling anybody but himself. I've had the pleasure of knowing a great many preachers. I have also known a great many preachers. I put it that way advisedly. Some preachers I've known, many preachers, it's been a great pleasure to know. But I've just known some other preachers and it's been no pleasure to know. But I have never yet known a great preacher that he wasn't a humble man. I've never known a great man, used of God or apart from God's will, successful in business or life, that he wasn't basically a considerate, humble man. Now, he may be preoccupied sometimes. He may be so busy that he doesn't have all the time he'd need, but the man himself, like that, is always considerate of his employees. He's always an easy man, and you get to know him. He doesn't think he's anything. Humility is the mark of greatness. If you haven't got that, you're nothing but a blown-up blout. You deceive yourself, you deceive nobody else. All right, let's go on for the next verse here. But let every man prove his own work. You prove your own work by bearing other people's burdens. You see, if you don't carry your share of it, you're adding to the burden. My dad used that illustration, this next verse here about let every man bear his own burden, how when you carry a log and a log rolling, you put a pole under. Each man gets a hold of one side of the pole, six or eight men to a log, and you all carry it together. But if one man doesn't carry his full share, it adds to the load of the other. Now you prove your own work, and then he shall have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. You rejoice in yourself as you prove your work. You don't have to then rejoice in what somebody else has done, but you can rejoice in what you've done as you've proved your work by helping somebody else. For every man shall bear his own burden. Now, let him that's taught in the scripture communicate freely to him that teaches. That is, let the man that's taught pay for what he gets. That word communicate doesn't simply mean tell the teacher something. I know some students think that's what it means. Let him that's taught communicate with him that teaches. You yak and talk so much he doesn't get a chance to teach. You tell him instead of letting him tell you. That's not what it means. It means that the man who preaches the Word of God and the man who teaches the Scripture should be rewarded for his ministry by those who are taught. Again, it's a case of bearing a burden, see. If the man has the burden of the ministry, you help to bear the burden as you pay him for his preaching. The laborer is worthy of his hire. You don't preach for that. But a man who is taught the Word of God, we are told the man who preaches should live by the Word of God that he preaches. Be not deceived, God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting." Isn't it interesting that this verse, which we use so often here dealing with gross sins, is injected right in this very connection here where gross sins are not being mentioned, but the respectable sin of looking out for oneself and doing all one can instead of helping the brother. But that's sowing to the flesh. You sow to the flesh when you commit adultery. You also sow to the flesh when you push ahead of somebody else. When you take the easy course and lie down on the job, you're sowing to the flesh. You reap corruption from that just as surely as you reap corruption from drunkenness or uncleanness or any other sin. It's all the flesh. Let's get it straight, young folks. When the Bible speaks of the flesh, it does not mean only the gross sins. It doesn't mean only lust and drunkenness. and those dope addiction and those things that involve the body solely. It means anything that makes allowance for the care of the body and the desires of the human will over the spiritual and the divine will. You sow to the flesh when you keep your mouth shut in order to make friends of some man, so you'll get something out of him. when you ought to speak out boldly in the defense of the gospel with a testimony that is so into the flesh. And that brings its own particular corruption. Of course the gross sins corrupt the body. The soul that sinneth it shall die. But it's interesting that this verse is given here not in connection with gross sins, but in connection with this business of coddling oneself at the expense of other people. And let us not be weary in well-doing. Don't sow to the flesh, you'll reap corruption. But don't grow weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. I was thinking last night about ten o'clock when we had a lot of problems on us. Boy, you know, this gets pretty tiresome. And then this verse came to mind and I felt rebuked. You must never grow weary in well-doing. You don't do it for the reward, but the reward comes. But you have to wait. Some people want the reward now. The reward hereafter, too, the reward comes in due season. What would you think of a farmer that went out and planted the crop, came back the next day and sat down, didn't do anything to weed the field or hoe it, just sat back and said, well, there's no crop. I'm tired. No, all through the summer he looks after the crop, and the harvest comes in the due season. You can't afford to grow weary anywhere along the line. If you do, there won't be any harvest. The reward comes in due season if you faint not. You faint, there's no reward. The farmer that stops before the crop's completely headed up and gathered, he won't have any crop, he'll have weeds. You have to do it. If you faint on the way, there isn't anything. There's many a man that's going to have no reward at all because he didn't go quite all the way. It isn't enough to start out good. How much the Bible has to say about the man that puts his hand to the plow and looks back is not worthy of the king. If you love father, a mother, a wife, a child more than you love me, you have no reward. Don't just start off good. I know lots of folks that are good starters, but they're awfully poor finishers. I'd rather see a fella be a poor starter than a good finisher. There's one thing I do love, it's a good repenter. A fella messes things up as long as he repents that's hopeful. It's these hard fellows that don't repent, there's no hope for them. But I do love to see a fellow finish well. You can start off big and get out of wind. I've seen them many a time. You ever go to a track meet and watch them all start off? Boy, the fellow that's way ahead of all the rest of them, sometimes about the second lap around, he gets a pain in his side and he goes over and sits down. He's out of the race. Some fellow that starts off real slow, maybe, He doesn't have very good form in the beginning. You think, boy, he'll never make it. He arrives. You know, the tortoise and the hare. The hare was a good start, but the tortoise won the race because he didn't grow weary. The hare, you know, lay down. Hare's a rabbit, in case you don't know. Maybe some of you folks have always wondered about that. The tortoise is a turtle. You might call it the fable of the rabbit and the turtle. That means more to some of you folks. The turtle finished. The rabbit went to sleep, he grew weary, and well do. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, but especially unto them which are of the household of faith. Here again we set in the word of God, we find set forth that proper order in which everything is to be done. You are to bear things honorable in the sight of all men, but you have a special obligation to the fellow Christian. You must be absolutely fair and honorable, do all you can in all of your dealings with the ungodly. But you have a special obligation to a fellow Christian. A man has an obligation to his family that he doesn't have to his business associates. The man you buy groceries from, you have an obligation to pay him, pay your bill, treat him honorably. See that when you take the things out through the counter, you don't slip something in your pocket. You have to be honorable in your dealings with your gross. But you have more than that kind of an obligation with your family. You have the obligation of your family to provide for them, to bring in the money to buy the groceries for them. Your obligation to your people that work for you is different from your obligation to the people that you do business with casually. Now, so it is in the Christian life. You have an obligation to all men. You must do good to them. But we must especially do good to the household of faith. You know, friends, one way I would know that this ecumenical compromise breakdown is unscriptural if for no other reason is the fact that it violates this one verse of scripture here. They have so much love for the martyrs, and they have nothing but unkindness for the brethren. That's abnormal and perverted. You want to be kind to the ungodly, do whatever good you can for them, but you have an obligation especially to be loving to the brethren. And when they defend the modernists and criticize the brethren, there's something wrong. Well, Paul's next verse is, see what a long letter I've written. Well, I haven't preached a very long sermon. In fact, I haven't even dealt with but a few verses of Paul's letter. I suggest you go home and read the rest of it. It's a good book, one worthy of our attention in these days, shall we pray. Our Heavenly Father, we pray that you give us a well-balanced approach to life. We know, Lord, if it's scriptural, it will be well-balanced. For no man can walk in the light of God's Word and fall into darkness. And the Word is the light to our feet, the lamp to our feet, the light to our path. So, Lord, help us to walk in the light of the Word. Forgive us our selfishness, Lord, so easy to be selfish. So easy to sit back when we ought to get up. So easy to keep the chair when there's somebody there that's old that we ought to get up and give the chair to. So easy to think of everything from the standpoint of our own wishes and our own ease and our own comfort. But help us, Lord, to be like Christ, who, being God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, yet he made himself no reputation. Help us, Lord, to be willing to be servants one of another, and so fulfill the law of Christ, we pray it in his blessed name. Amen. You've heard a message by Dr. Bob Jones, Jr., who during the latter part of his life served as chancellor of Bob Jones University. This message, our obligation to our fellow Christian, was recorded August 5, 1963. Copies are available from two sources. You may order a cassette copy from the campus store, Bob Jones University, Greenville, South Carolina, 29614. Enclose $7 for cassette, tax, and postage. Or visit the station's website, wmuu.com. Listen each week at this time for the Chancellor's Program, sponsored by Bob Jones University.